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Word Of The Year: Selfie

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“Selfie” has been named the word of the year.

Oxford Dictionaries chose the word because its usage increased by 17,000 per cent over last year.

A “selfie” is a photo that a person takes of himself, usually with his smart phone.

Have you ever seen a picture of a person that he took by holding his phone out in front of him? That’s a selfie.

A selfie can also be taken in a mirror or with a webcam.

Another term for selfie is “self portrait.”

The term was first used in 2002, in an online chat in Australia.

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News Science Technology

“Lots Of Room For Zero-G Fun” On New Commercial Spacecraft

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More than 500 people—including American actor Ashton Kutcher—will become “astronauts” next year.

They have each paid $200,000 for a two-hour flight on SpaceShipTwo.

The aircraft will take them very high and very fast—in fact, they will break the sound barrier.

A British company called Virgin Galactic, which is owned by a well-known and famously daring billionaire named Sir Richard Branson, tested its new aircraft last week.

During the test, the spacecraft flew 69,000 feet high over the Mojave Desert, in the U.S.

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News Technology

Texters Studied In New Research

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The University Of Winnipeg in Manitoba recently tested students to see if their texting habits made a difference to the way they thought.

In one part of the study, 2,300 first-year psychology students completed one-hour online surveys.

The survey asked about what they thought was important to them as well as how often they texted.

The study found that those who texted more than 100 times a day were more interested in being rich and famous than those who texted 50 times or fewer each day.

To heavy texters, an ethical or a moral life was not as important as those who texted 50 or fewer times a day.

Another part of the study tested how students felt about different social, racial and ethnic groups. In this part, some students texted, some spoke on cellphones and some did neither.

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Lighter News Technology

Judge Finds Himself In Contempt Of Court

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A judge in Michigan did something very unusual last week. He charged himself with “contempt of court” and gave himself a fine of $25.

People can get charged with contempt when they do something during a trial that the judge believes shows disrespect to the court.

So when judge Raymond Voet’s cell phone went off during a trial on April 13, he declared himself to be in contempt. Then he had to pay his own court $25.

It happened during a speech that was being given by one of the lawyers.

The judge’s phone started “talking,” loudly speaking some voice commands.

He thinks he may have accidentally bumped it, which turned on its voice activation–a feature the judge told MLive.com he didn’t even know it had.

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Environment News Science Technology

Hadfield Brings Space Life Down To Earth

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When Chris Hadfield was nine years old, he watched Apollo 11 land on the moon and decided he wanted to become an astronaut.

That was in 1969, and about half a billion people around the world watched the same grainy images of the moon landing on TV.

It seems incredible, but with today’s technology and social media websites, people can see and hear what the astronauts are doing on the International Space Station every day.

We can watch videos of them, check out the view of Earth from the space station, and even have casual “conversations” with the astronauts.

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Lighter Technology

It’s Fun To Work (And Play) At Google

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Everyone wants to work somewhere that’s interesting and fun.

The people at Google have taken that concept to an extreme.

Their new Canadian headquarters in Toronto, Ont. have some features that make everyone want to come to work.

Google is the Internet’s most popular search engine (the software program that helps you find websites you’re looking for).

The company also makes many other software products such as Google Maps and Google Chrome.

Google also owns many Internet companies including YouTube and Blogger.

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News Technology

Google Puts Cambridge Bay, Nunavut On Street View

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People around the world will soon be able to see what life in a small northern community looks like, thanks to Google Street View.

The hamlet of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, was photographed for Google Street View in August.

Street View is a feature of Google Maps which allows users to see panoramic street-level photographs of the places on a map.

In Street View, the user can click on arrows and “travel” along the streets, seeing the buildings, houses and sidewalks.

Many places around the world have been mapped by Street View but Cambridge Bay, which is located on the southeast coast of Victoria Island in Canada’s Arctic, is the farthest north so far.

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News Technology

Apple Launches Eagerly-Anticipated New iPhone

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Apple launched its new cell phone last week—the iPhone5.

Although the iPhone5 has some new features, it’s essentially the same phone with a longer screen (see the picture that accompanies this article).

The new phone is thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessors.

It’s less than 8 mm thick.

The screen is now a bit longer, at 4” (measured diagonally), or 10.2 cms. The iPhone4 screen is 3.5” (8.9 cms).

The new iPhone is also faster than the other iPhones.

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Science Technology

Take Pictures Without A Camera

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Put your pointer fingers and thumbs together so they form a rectangle.

Now go “click!”

You just took a picture.

Can you imagine it? That’s what it will be like to take a picture with the Ubi-Camera, now being developed by a group of researchers at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences, a university in Japan.

The Ubi-Camera is a tiny rectangular box that fits over your thumb.

For the viewfinder (the thing you would normally look through on a camera to see what you want to take a picture of) you simply form a rectangle with your fingers and thumbs.

To take a picture, you press down on the box. Click! You’ve taken a photo—without a “camera.”

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News Sports Technology

iPhone App Helps Blind Olympic Torchbearer

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The 2012 summer Olympic Games takes place in London, England starting next month.

From July 27 to August 12, athletes from 203 countries around the world will converge on the city to compete in sports including swimming, cycling and diving.

Before the competitions begin, the Olympic torch is run in a cross-country relay through more than 1,000 cities in the United Kingdom.

The torch was flown to the UK on May 18 and the huge, cross-country relay began.

In the relay, runners hold the torch aloft as they run and when they get to a certain spot they light the next runner’s torch–and so on.

The last torchbearer will light the giant cauldron in the Olympic Stadium in London, to mark the start of the Olympic Games for 2012.

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